Mass hysteria
Collective hysteria, or mass hysteria, is the sociopsychological phenomenon of the manifestation of the same hysterical symptoms by more than one person. It may begin when a group witness an individual becoming hysterical during a traumatic or extremely stressful event. A potential symptom is group nausea, in which a person becoming violently ill triggers a similar reaction in other group members. Examples include certain cases of rioting and frenzy, and accidents in which people act "irrationally" (screaming, running in the wrong direction, hunting down and brutally murdering scapegoats, etc.). See also *Collective behavior *Contagion *Crowd psychology *Deindividuation *Day care sex abuse hysteria *Folie à deux *Herd behavior *Hysteria *Hysterical contagion *Mass psychogenic illness *Moral panic References Books *Bartholomew, R. E. (2001). Little green men, meowing nuns and head-hunting panics: A study of mass psychogenic illness and social delusion. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. 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